"Muscles" is a 1982 soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 single written and produced by Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

 and performed by American R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

/soul singer Diana Ross

Diana Ross

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...

.

The single reached number ten on the pop singles chart (holding this position for 6 weeks) and number four on the R&B singles chart upon its release and was the first single from her gold

RIAA certification

In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...

-certified album, Silk Electric. The song, which was named after Jackson's pet snake and was written for Ross and her "desire" for a muscle-bound lover, also gave Ross her twelfth and latest Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

The song was recorded in 1997 by producer/DJ Peter Rauhofer

Peter Rauhofer

Peter Rauhofer is a DJ, remixer and producer who formerly went under the moniker Club 69 as well as Size Queen. A native of Vienna, Austria, he is famous for his remixes of a number of Madonna's songs including "Nothing Really Matters", "American Life", "Nothing Fails, "Nobody Knows Me", "Get...

 recording as Club 69 and was a featured single on the Club 69 album Style. The vocals on this version of "Muscles" are performed by singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

, Suzanne Palmer

Suzanne Palmer

Suzanne Palmer is a female Progressive Trance, Club/Dance and House music singer, songwriter, pianist and producer born in Chicago, Illinois. She is best known as the lead vocalist on Peter Rauhofer's Club 69 project, most specifically the hits Much Better , "Alright" and a remake of the Michael...

.

Lil Kim sampled "Muscles" for her rap

Rapping

Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

 "Diamonds" but it was not included in the final cut of her album The Notorious K.I.M. Young Jeezy

Young Jeezy

Jay Wayne Jenkins , better known by his stage name Young Jeezy, is an American rapper. He is the member of the hip hop group United Streets Dopeboyz of America and a former member of BMF...

 also sampled "Muscles" for the title track of his album The Inspiration.

Music video

The single's music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 featured Ross in bed dreaming of muscular men. In one scene she is shown floating through the air over a landscape which turns out to be a man's musclebound body. The video features a young Gil Birmingham

Gil Birmingham

Gil Birmingham is an American actor of Comanche ancestry, known for his portrayal of Billy Black in the The Twilight Saga film series.- Personal background :...

 (Twilight

The Twilight Saga (film series)

The Twilight Saga is a series of supernatural romance fantasy films from Summit Entertainment based on the four Twilight series novels by the American author Stephenie Meyer. The films star Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner. The series has grossed over $2 billion in worldwide...

 saga film series) in one of his first-ever media appearances.

Track listing

UK vinyl, 12" (12CL 268)

1. "Muscles" – 4:36
2. "I Am Me" – 3:50

US vinyl, 12", promo (JD-13382)

1. "Muscles" – 6:38
2. "I Am Me" – 3:50

US vinyl, 7" (PB 13348)

1. "Muscles" – 3:59
2. "I Am Me" – 3:50

FR vinyl, 7" (2C 008-86609)

1. "Muscles" – 3:59
2. "I Am Me" – 3:50

NE vinyl, 12" (052Z-86609)

1. "Muscles" – 4:35
2. "I Am Me" – 3:47

NE vinyl, 7" (1A 006-86609)

1. "Muscles" – 3:59
2. "I Am Me" – 3:50

Chart performance

Chart (1982)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	10
U.S. Billboard Hot Black Singles Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...	4
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary	36